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Optogenetics pioneers win the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine

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American scientist Karl Deisseroth and German researchers Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday, 5 October 2026, for “discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced in Stockholm. The prize, formally the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, opened this year’s Nobel announcements.

Switching nerve cells on with light

The Nobel Assembly said the laureates gave scientists a way to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain. Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein, in a single-celled alga. Deisseroth then turned the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells, an approach known as optogenetics. “The laureates have laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience,” the Assembly said in its press release.

Deisseroth works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the United States. Hegemann is at Humboldt University of Berlin and Nagel at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Reuters said Deisseroth is 54, Hegemann 71 and Nagel 73.

Nobel Prize in medicine: prize money and the announcement

The Nobel Prize in medicine carries a prize sum of 12 million Swedish crowns, about $1.2 million, which is shared when there are several winners, Reuters reported. Each laureate receives a one-third share this year, according to the Nobel Prize organisation’s summary of the award.

The announcement was made by Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly. In an interview published by the Nobel Prize organisation, committee member Anna Wedell said: “We can get a whole new understanding of the function of the brain.”

Six days, six prizes

The medicine prize traditionally opens the Nobel season. Awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics follow over the coming days, with all six announcements scheduled between 5 and 12 October and streamed live on nobelprize.org.

Source: NobelPrize.org press release | Karolinska Institutet | Reuters

Photo: Christopher Michel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (resized)

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